Miss Grumpy-Pants-Messy-Hair

aka: Olivia after a nap

Kick off to Summer Festivals

One thing I love about living in Chicago is all the neighborhood festivals that fill up the summer weekends. Food, music, beer, sunshine, what more could you ask for? Rob and I have great memories of going to all the fests in years past, and this summer is the first year we're attempting these with toddlers in tow. Next weekend we're hoping to check out daddy's all time favorite: Rib Fest!

Today we headed out to Aunt Kari's & Uncle Jay's neighborhood. Aunt Kari is doing pretty well post-surgery, looked great and is really being such a trooper. To let her rest and keep Katie entertained, the rest of us headed down the street to enjoy the festival going on. All three girls had a good time, as it was a kid-friendly fest complete with ice cream, kid's music and balloons.

C&O excited to borrow Katie & James' stroller

Munching on some yummy Jumbo Pretzel

As the girls say, "TAY-teeeee"

Caroline and Katie being silly

Mommy & Liners

Daddy & his girls

and with Livi Lou

Caroline & Katie making sure we abide by all posted signage.

Flying Squirrel

Caroline has been caught trying to pull a flying-squirrel out of her crib for the past week or so. The little monkey climbs her way up the crib slats and can get one of her legs over the side. Scares the crap out of me and our nanny. We've resorted to taking off all the couch cushions in our living room and surrounding the floors around both their cribs in case one or both girls do a nose-dive. We cannot continue to strip the couches every time they go to sleep!

So we have two options here: I can either convert their cribs into toddler beds and let them have free reign over their room at bedtime; or I can invest in a couple of crib tents, which keep the monkeys caged in and look like this:

I'm really not sure if they're quite ready for toddler beds just yet. I know this would be tough because they are sure to get out of bed multiple times throughout the night and it doesn't help that they already have each other as partners in crime! God only knows the mischief these two would get into when that bedroom door closes! But I certainly can't keep stressing that they will fall out of their cribs and hurt themselves. Hmmm... what's a mom to do?

Big Girl Booster Seats

The girls have been getting pretty restless in their high chairs lately - it's become a battle every time we try to snap on their trays. Our usual routine has unfortunately been for us to put them in their chairs, snap on the trays, and push them in front of the TV so that I can get other stuff done and they can be distracted long enough to sit and eat. I hate that it's come to that, and have been thinking we need to change this for some time. We're not setting a very good example for them by plopping them in front of the tube to eat while they see mom & dad walking about doing other things. My hope is that we start all sitting down as a family at dinner time, and hopefully this will create some normalcy and a routine for everyone.

So we bought them "Big Girl" booster seats. These take up much less space (will be great to take with us when we travel or to restaurants), have NO trays, and will allow the girls to be pushed right up to the table so they can eat like big girls with mom & dad. And they're PINK! (Just for you, Aunt Nee Nee).

I took them out of the box for the girls to play with last night. Caroline was more interested than Liv, and was concerned that "Wibby" wouldn't come sit down in hers.

Thoughts & Prayers

Our thoughts and prayers are with Aunt Kari today as she undergoes a very serious surgery. She was recently diagnosed with Breast cancer, and this unfortunately marks the beginning of a long and tough road of recovery for Kari and her family.

We love you, Aunt Kari.

NO NAP, Mama!

We had an awesome Memorial Weekend. The weather could not have been more perfect and it was so nice to spend a few days together as a family.

The girls have been taking one nap a day for a few weeks now. However, this one nap only usually lasts about 1 hour to 1 hour & 15 mins. Oh, how much I would give for these kids to take a solid two hour nap one of these days! And yesterday, Miss Olivia decided she didn't want to take ANY naps. She kept telling me, "NO Nigh-Nigh, Mama!". How fun for mama, as I cherish those nap times to get stuff done around the house/have a mommy break, etc. So I had to keep her quietly entertained so we were not to disturb and awaken the grumpy Miss Caroline from her much needed beauty rest.

Look at this mischievous face.

And a video:

Aunt Nee Nee Visit - Day 2

Today we took the girls to the Lincoln Park Zoo. They really love making all of the animal sounds and pointing out the animals in all their books, so I envisioned them sitting in their wagon and being enthralled with all of the exhibits that we saw. However, that was not the case. We saw the monkeys and the lions.... and after that, all they wanted to do was run all over the place. I'm so glad we had three adults with us - one to watch the wagon, one to chase Caroline, and one to chase Olivia. It was a bit nuts, but all in all a good day.

Caroline is in orange, and Olivia in green